Funerary ritual as a means of land appropriation?

The paper re-examines evidence of the earliest tumuli (sixth century BC) in the Greek colony Istros (Histria), on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. Past scholarship tried to explain the cremation rituals and their human sacrifices as belonging to the customs of the local Thracian aristocracy. Others have referred to barbaranised Greeks or “mix-Hellens” or Homeric rites. The funerary rites of Istros find close parallels in the indigenous graves of the same period. The paper argues, following post-colonial theories, that rigid ethnic dichotomies of colonial societies should be avoided, and that all participants, colonized and colonizers, construct meaningful realities. In Istros the funerary rituals and identities find a better understanding if considered as “appropriation”: Greeks adopted and re-interpreted local customs in order to maintain themselves and their power positions in a time when these were questioned.

@inproceedings{1168466,
abstract = {The paper re-examines evidence of the earliest tumuli (sixth century BC) in the Greek colony Istros (Histria), on the Romanian coast of the Black Sea. Past scholarship tried to explain the cremation rituals and their human sacrifices as belonging to the customs of the local Thracian aristocracy. Others have referred to barbaranised Greeks or {\textquotedblleft}mix-Hellens{\textquotedblright} or Homeric rites. The funerary rites of Istros find close parallels in the indigenous graves of the same period. The paper argues, following post-colonial theories, that rigid ethnic dichotomies of colonial societies should be avoided, and that all participants, colonized and colonizers, construct meaningful realities. In Istros the funerary rituals and identities find a better understanding if considered as {\textquotedblleft}appropriation{\textquotedblright}: Greeks adopted and re-interpreted local customs in order to maintain themselves and their power positions in a time when these were questioned.},
author = {Donnellan, Lieve},
booktitle = {42nd Annual Chacmool Archaeology Conference, Proceedings},
editor = {Amundsen-Meyer, Lindsey and Engel, Nicole and Pickering, Sean},
keyword = {identity,Funerary ritual,Greek colonization},
language = {eng},
location = {Calgary, Canada},
pages = {62--73},
publisher = {Chacmool Archaeological Association University of Calgary},
title = {Funerary ritual as a means of land appropriation?},
year = {2011},
}